Saturday night. Hockey Night in Canada. Canada-Russia. On home soil. In front of a raucous red-and-white clad capacity crowd at the Air Canada Centre and a national television audience watching at home from coast to coast.

In the early days of training camp in Ottawa two
weeks ago, after the majority of reporters had
fled the Team Canada dressing room, Sidney
Crosby took a moment to reflect on what it
meant to wear that red-and-white maple leaf on
his chest while playing on home soil.